On Media

New York Times starts layoffs

By HADAS GOLD

12/16/2014 01:02 PM EST

The New York Times, which has been undergoing a round of buyouts, will now move to layoffs, with plans to eliminate 21 Guild positions by the end of the week, the newspaper's executive editor, Dean Baquet, announced in a memo to staff on Tuesday.

The news comes after 87 staffers accepted buyouts, falling short of the 100 positions the Times hopes to eliminate.

"We are coming to the end of a painful period for the newsroom. Today is the final day for people to rescind their buyout applications. We did not make the number we needed to deal with our newsroom budget cuts. So we are turning to a limited number of layoffs," Baquet wrote. "This process will end this week. We will be saying farewell to close and valued colleagues, which is difficult for all of us."

Staffers will be notified Tuesday and Wednesday if they have been laid off.

The layoffs are the final element of a plan to eliminate some 100 positions in the newsroom as part of the Times' larger effort to stem costs and restructure for a more digital future. Media reporters Bill Carter and Christine Haughney, labor reporter Steven Greenhouse, editorial page writer David Firestone and chief financial correspondent Floyd Norris are among those who accepted buyout offers.